Celia Penderghast
Celia Penderghast, better known by her handle The White Rabbit, and also known by the self-given titles Hitori and Saisei, is a super-powered Conduit with the natural ability to manipulate and control paper, which she uses to travel at incredible speeds, commit skilled assassinations and actions of vigilante justice, and manifest in the forms of origami doves created from a manga she creates in her free time. Celia is a minor character in inFAMOUS: Second Son, mentioned several times and a major force in the driving motivation of several characters and plot points, and is the main focus of the game's post-release side content, Paper Trail, where she finally appears in the flesh for the first time. History inFAMOUS: Second Son Celia was one of the Conduits who's powers were first awakened during the aftermath of the New Marais incident, during which her foster parents died. Young, alone and confused, Celia took refuge in the chaos of the city, trying to avoid the anti-conduit lynch mobs searching for her kind to abuse, until she was discovered by a member of the United States Army sent into the clean up the mess- Brooke Augustine. Augustine discovered that she too was a Conduit, with the ability to manipulate concrete. Taking pity on the young girl and finding herself in a similar predicament, Augustine decided to take Celia under her care and lead her through the city back to her Battalion. When Celia and Augustine reunited with her fellow troops, they found themselves the targets- the military wanted to contain the incident as quick as possible, and that meant the elimination of all conduits regardless of age or innocence. Thinking quickly, Augustine chose to trap Celia in a small prison of concrete and made a deal with her superiors- she could save the government the PR nightmare of the slaughter and genocide of the Conduits by capturing them and keeping them under Government supervision instead, keeping them at a special Conduit prison, known as Curdun Cay. One of the first prisoners of Curdun Cay, Celia was imprisoned during the majority of her life, watching as the prison rapidly expanded as her fellow Conduits, now referred to as Bio-Terrorists, were rounded up or executed. Despite her role in Celia's capture, Augustine routinely treated her better than the other prisoners, even allowing her a piece of paper each day, to write or draw her thoughts. Celia would often create her own Manga or write notes about the days events on these papers, before folding them into origami doves, hundreds of which littered her room. Unfortunately, when Celia was set to be transported, she was apparently able to get free of her bindings and use her powers, not to kill her captors, but to instead weaponize her origami collection, turning the doves into razor sharp blades that slashed her nearly beyond recognition, rather than live another moment in hopeless captivity. Celia's death disturbed quite a few DUP agents, one of whom, a traitor who had been leaving dead drops for the Conduit Delsin Rowe, noted Augustine's cold, emotionless reaction to the death with anger, warning Rowe of the woman's dangerous nature. inFAMOUS: Second Son: Paper Trail The truth of the matter is that Celia was always considered by many of the DUP to be Augustine's "pet project", and was experimented on frequently to make into a dangerous fighter. Early on during her time in Curdun Cay, Celia met and became friends with fellow inmate Hank Daughtry, who claimed that she reminded him of his non-Conduit daughter. When the friendship was discovered, Augustine had Celia isolated from the other inmates. Eventually, she took the child to see the prison's morgue, where hundreds of Conduits were kept, mutilated beyond recognition and left for the DUP to identify- the result of prejudice against "Bio-Terrorists". The sight was quite traumatic for the young Celia, and her drawings and writings became more violent and grim as a result, making her more susceptible to Augustine's manipulations, and even coming to see the woman as a motherly figure. When Augustine discovered the DUP was on the verge of being shut down, she orchestrated two separate break-outs: one which would release the inmates Hank, Abigail Walker and Eugene Sims into Seattle, and one to allow Celia to operate as her own personal assassin in the city. Selecting one guard to oversee Celia's prison transfer- a young woman about Celia's height and figure, named Naomi Lachter, Augustine ensured that the Conduit's daily paper was replaced with a special heavier stock to ensure her potential lethality. Faking a cry of pain, Celia lured Naomi in, and used her paper powers to murder her, swapping their clothes and then mutilating the body beyond recognition, repeating to herself over and over again that Augustine had said that no one would miss the girl to try and dull the pain of murdering a woman that had been so kind to her. With the deed done, Celia disappeared into Seattle, having faked her death and now operating off the grid, only reporting to Augustine under the code-name "Saisei", Japanese for "Rebirth". Making her way to Seattle, Saisei's job was to ensure that Augustine's plans came to fruition, ensuring that the people saw Fetch, Hank and Eugene as large enough threats that it would remind the Government why they needed the DUP and couldn't afford to shut them down. She began to assassinate a series of targets throughout the city, using her powers to make the victims look like they suffered from attacks by Fetch's Neon powers. While the murders were pulled off without a hitch, they caught the attention of Delsin Rowe, a friend of Fetch and a Conduit that Augustine hadn't planned to account for, who was able to recognize that the killings didn't match his friend's MO, as she only ever targeted drug dealers, and was finding more constructive uses for her powers. Reporting into Augustine, code-named Purotekuta (Japanese for Protector), she informed her boss of her success, and alerted her to the presence of Delsin, referred to by Celia affectionately as Fukushu (Japanese for assistant or associate). While Augustine warned Saisei that Delsin was a dangerous and untrustworthy threat to be avoided, the Conduit was unable to get him out of her mind, quickly becoming somewhat obsessed with him. Her next set of targets were the team she dubbed Bullies- the three most responsible for the court rulings that justified the dehumanization and mistreatment of Conduits at Curdun Cay and the ability for the military to openly threaten them with genocide. Samuel Fishbein, the DUP enforcer who headed up the case, as well as Linda Kriley, the lawyer who was able to make it happen and Marcus Paulson, the judge who ruled over the proceedings were each tracked down by Celia and left murdered, framed to look as if Eugene had committed the deeds. Each time, she left bread crumbs of a paper trail for Delsin, forcing him to hack through the DUP's databases for files, examine the crime scenes for evidence and follow Celia's path through the internet, with each crime leaving him an Origami dove with a page of a manga she was drawing based on the events of Seattle featuring anthropomorphic animal renditions of herself, Augustine and Delsin, along with a note and haiku written to him on the back, egging him on to chase her even further down the rabbit hole in pursuit of the truth. Her next target, Senator Winegard, was attempting to both solidify his power in office and push anti-conduit bills by faking assassination attempts on his life from Hank Daughtry- rigging his cars with explosives to replicate Hank's smoke powers and leaving fake messages praising Winegard as a worthy foe while still threatening to end his life, each time leaving the Senator narrowly escaping with his life. Seeing through the ruse, Celia and Delsin work together, with her leading him with her paper trail to uncover the truth of Winegard's corruption and deceit, uncovering video and audio evidence which Celia then uploaded to the internet, defaming the Senator and publicly humiliating him, allowing her to assassinate him, leaving his body with another Origami Dove to Delsin, admiring and thanking him for helping her by delivering a "lethal does of both fairness and justice". She confided in Augustine that she had left the Senator as a tribute to Fukushu, and that despite her warnings, he began to haunt her dreams and thoughts, even when she wasn't spying on him for her boss. Next, Celia lead Delsin down a path dealing with members of the Lifeline "Purity First" organization, a group of civilians who sought to help the DUP remove the Bio-Terrorist threat from their daily lives. While the Lifeline group had been a beneficial organization for the DUP in the past, leading to over a dozen arrests on their tips, numerous members more radical thoughts lead to a spree of vigilante violence, resulting in the deaths of eight potential Conduits in Seattle. Celia once again began to feed Delsin a series of Origami notes and cryptic messages, encouraging him to hack deeper into the DUP databases and eventually leading to him hacking the Lifeline website's forums, uncovering a video of two members in masks violently beating and murdering one of the potential Conduits while revealing that they possessed a DUP Potential Threat list, meaning that someone in the organization had leaked the document to the radicals. Examining their post history, it was discovered the leaker was a scientist, Tyler Bennet, who possessed known connections to the group and was partially responsible for Celia's mental scars from the morgue, threateningly telling the young girl that all "Freaks" like herself deserved the mutilation that the corpses there had suffered. Using this information, the DUP received enough evidence to fire Bennet, allowing Rowe to recover the threat list, preventing the man's desperate attempts to sell it to the Military. After killing Bennet, Celia warned Augustine that she thought her Fukushu was on to them, and that the military would be coming soon, believing that the DUP should play all of their cards at once. Despite her worries, Augustine reassured Celia, telling her to focus on the plan, and ordering her to manipulate Delsin into destroying the undercover military convoy spying on the DUP forces, leading to the murder of Army General Mortimer. Concurrent to Celia's mission to deal with the DUP's enemies, Delsin's conflict with the DUP and Augustine was coming to a head. Celia attempted to warn Augustine that she thought of her Fukushu as an ally not an enemy, and that he was too powerful, but ultimately decided to stay in the shadows and watched as Delsin, Fetch and Eugene laid siege to Augustine's tower, bringing down the DUP in Seattle and leaving Augustine utterly defeated. Celia once again left a paper trail for her Fukushu to follow, leaving graffiti tags of doves as a cypher to lead him to a voice message that, when traced, allowed him to track down her apartment. Inside, she left a series of notes and clues allowing him to decipher the last remnants of truth about her identity and role in the DUP, leaving him a final test based on the manga she had written for him which lead to a recording and a log of her messages with Augustine, with a final message left for Delsin, claiming that she needed to know who's will was stronger, and that she would learn from Delsin's strength and freedom. She said that she would be waiting for her new teacher at the chosen place- the site of the final battle between Delsin and Augustine, and revealed to him that she intended to overthrow the normals of humanity, because she learned from Delsin that she would have to take her freedom for herself, while also teleporting away before Delsin could fight her, leaving a simple final message, concluding her manga. As she disappeared, Delsin swore that while he had no intentions of leaving her with the warped views she now possessed, he'd do everything in his power to make her right. Appearances * InFAMOUS: Second Son ** InFAMOUS: Second Son: Paper Trail Category:Characters Category:Superpowered Humans Category:Villains Category:Playstation